Evaluation of Heat Treatments for Additively Manufactured 316L

Abstract

316L stainless steel is frequently chosen for load bearing applications in nuclear power plants due to its good creep resistance, radiation damage resistance, and a large existing database and characterization for nuclear application. The rapid meltpool solidification of laser powder bed fusion results in high internal stresses that in turn necessitate stress relief heat treatments at a minimum. In this work, a factorial design of experiments to evaluate the effects of different lasers, quenching vs furnace cooling, and stress relief vs solution heat treatment vs HIP was conducted to quantify the effect of various heat treatments on microstructures and mechanical property outcomes.